Trump grapples with public health and economic maelstrom

As fears about the coronavirus outbreak roiled financial markets, the nation’s political leaders grappled Monday with a public health and economic maelstrom — as well as concerns for their own safety.

The White House said it is “conducting business as usual,” and President Donald Trump sought to project calm as the epidemic poses one of the greatest tests yet to his administration.

Trump officials argued that they had the matter well in hand, and charged political opponents with rooting for an economic collapse. On Capitol Hill, at least two lawmakers were in self-quarantine as discussions were underway on how to address the virus outbreak and economic volatility and keep the government functioning.

Trump lashed out in Monday morning tweets, protesting the steep market drop and news that large public gatherings were being called off because of the virus.

“At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths,” Trump tweeted, comparing it to seasonal influenza and the thousands of deaths that causes. “Think about that!”

At the same time, administration officials were insistent that they weren’t trying to dismiss public concerns. “This is a very serious health problem,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Fox News.

More people get the flu — tens of millions — and thus even a low death rate can quickly add up to tens of thousands of deaths. But scientists don’t know what the death rate of the new coronavirus actually is and whether it will wind up being about the same as flu or worse. Simple math suggests the death rate of COVID-19 is currently higher than flu, but scientists stress that it will fluctuate because at the beginning of an outbreak, the sickest people are counted first and those with mild illness often are missed.

Trump spent Monday morning headlining a fundraiser in Longwood, Florida, that raised approximately $4 million for his reelection campaign and the Republican Party. He ignored shouted questions about the plunging stock market as he boarded Air Force One for the flight back to Washington.

Trump was delegating much of the virus response to Vice President Mike Pence, who convened a video teleconference to give an update on the federal government’s virus response Monday afternoon with the nation’s governors. Pence was also scheduled to lead a meeting of the administration’s task force on Monday before holding a press briefing.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., put themselves in voluntary quarantine after exposure to a person who tested positive for the virus at last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

Trump was scheduled to meet Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Larry Kudlow and other aides when he returned to the White House about a range of economic actions he could take. He also invited Wall Street executives to the White House later in the week to discuss the economic fallout of the epidemic.

Kudlow, director of the president’s National Economic Council, told reporters Friday that the administration is not looking at a “massive” federal relief plan. Rather, any federal aid package would be “timely and targeted and micro.”

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill had barely started to contemplate the economic implications of the spread of the virus and what might be needed to stimulate the economy as people cancel vacations and business trips and stay away from stores. A spokesman for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said Monday that he is “exploring the possibility of targeted tax relief measures that could provide a timely and effective response to the coronavirus.”

Grassley spokesman Michael Zona said “several options within the committee’s jurisdiction are being considered” as they lawmakers more about the effects on the economy.

Meanwhile, a day after saying it was “proceeding as normal,” Trump’s campaign canceled a three-day Women for Trump bus tour across Michigan that included Mercedes Schlapp, the former White House aide who is married to the American Conservative Union chairman, Matt Schlapp.

Schlapp is under self-quarantine after after he, too, was exposed to the infected person at CPAC. He introduced Trump and greeted him with a handshake on stage before the president’s spoke on Feb. 29.

“The president of the United States, as we all know, is quite a hand washer,” press secretary Stephanie Grisham told Fox News. “He uses hand sanitizer all the time. So he’s not concerned about this at all.”